06 April 2009

This weekend has left me in a very negative mood, despite the great weather, spending time with family and friends, and crossing a few big TODOs off of my list.

The reason is that I am beginning to doubt that anyone on this island has an iota of good judgment, or could add one plus one and get three... I mean two.

1) Saturday 11:45am, I am heading east in my car just west of Barnes Corner. I am required to come to a full stop in my lane to make room for an SAL cement truck that is passing a stopped bus while at full speed. He gave me a thank-you honk. Heck, at least I am still alive.

2) Saturday afternoon, I am now heading west in my car on Middle road just past the end of Ord Road. I am required to come to almost a complete stop to make room for a passing car. That car was passing not one, not two, but three cars.

I have no idea what happened on Saturday night to those poor people on South Shore Road -- but with experiences like mine on Saturday, it's not hard to make some educated guesses.

3) This is unrelated to road safety but in the news this morning I learned that Government did deliberately mislead seniors about FutureCare to avoid over-subscription. Has the Government done anything in a straightforward, up-front, and honest way recently? The right thing to do would have been to admit they could only accept X seniors, open applications to all eligible, and have a lottery or some other criteria. That would avoided leaving seniors feeling confused and cheated.

In a similar vein, I now see that Government is mooting a congestion charge, presumably using the Electronic Vehicle Registration (EVR) system. Does anyone remember the promises that this would not be used for congestion charges? Of course at the time it was obvious to see that was likely not the case -- in all of the system manufacturer's press releases, the only application mentioned for EVR was congestion charging and tolling.

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About Douglas

I am a white Bermudian male in my 30s. I ran as a UBP candidate in Southampton East in the December 2007 General Election. I currently work in the reinsurance business, have a Ph.D. in computer science from MIT, and love to sail. You can call me on 325 4868 or email decouto/alum.mit.edu with your comments (swap / with @).